I listened to the latest Econtalk podcast today and Richard McKenzie, a economic professor had an interesting claim-Al-Qaeda and the TSA have killed more people after September 11th than on September 11th. Here’s his a synopsis of his reasoning:

Terrorists have probably killed more Americans since 9/11. When they flew the planes into the towers people feared flying; wait times have gone up with inspections. So more people drive; and since highways are more deadly than flying you anticipate more deaths. Three Cornell economists found that highway travel went up and estimated that 1250 adults died in first 12 months after 9/11 who wouldn’t have.

Here’s a study which argues that additional driving, caused by less flying has led to more deaths. TSA gets invovled in the addtional deaths because they make flying more burdonsome, leading to more people driving.

Yesterday it took me 13 hours to get from Orlando, Florida back to DC–flying. As I was hanging out in the airport I realized that if I would have driven it would have taken me less time. It also would have been far more dangerous.